In his story, he described his first encounter with the full oratorio as a child chorister at St George’s Cathedral in Kingston, in the spring of 1977. It was an encounter that deeply marked his young life:
A few short weeks after opening the score for the first time, my fellow choristers and I realized that those tatty old dark blue books were like a treasure-trove of art and colour, leading down paths of emotion and creativity that we had not previously known. The final few movements of Part the Third were sung as an impressively loud thunderstorm took place outside, and the last page of the Amen chorus was accompanied by huge flashes of lightning that seemed to explode on the other side of the large windows. It was quite an introduction to Handel’s masterpiece, and afterward I knew my life was changed forever.
You can read the full article here.
For this week’s most intriguing Messiah performances in the GTA, read here.
John Terauds